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RTE Regional TV experiments

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    #32
    Elmo
    Registered Users Posts: 23,641 ✭✭✭✭Elmo


    I can't, offhand, name one programme from the US I've watched in the past year. Clearly I have, but they're all so similar, so ****, that they fade away almost instantly.

    Unlike the oh so original UK programmes like Coro St, Emmers, EastEnders, Hollyoaks, Heartbeat and the Bill etc. (Only because they repeat themselves so much and the fact that they are constantly on means they don't fade from your memory).

    Plenty of originality coming from America as their shows don't last for more then 10 years. The odd exception to the rule like ER (On its last legs) and Law And Order. And a few spin offs including CSI and L&O (and its spinoffs are really only using the brand).

    Can you honestly suggest that the major shows in the US are similar. Lost, Heroes and 24 may follow the same continuation formula but all are very different. IMO.


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    #33
    EIREHotspur
    Registered Users Posts: 763 ✭✭✭EIREHotspur


    RTE to be are amauteurs....Brenda Donahue of the Gerry Ryan Show was down here a few years ago and wheeled in her little trolley herself and had to set up her Mics and ring up the Tech guys back in Dublin to fix the signal etc.....no sign of a Technician......maybe she didn't need one but could you see this scenario in any other country with the biggest listenership in the particular country????

    So forget about Regional programming.....unless you get a show called mobile Video weekly or something......which of course is signed over rights free for use on RTE.

    Their Talent.....Guy off the Lotto show and Ryan Turnip......guys who think they are ten times funnier than they actually are.

    Thank God for Sky and choice.


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    #34
    Solair
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,230 ✭✭✭Solair


    The fact that the majority of the population doesn't watch RTE from an antenna makes regionalising rather complex too without playing ball properly with the cable companies.

    From what I remember, RTE had regional news content there for a while after 6.1, but it didn't work properly as Chorus and NTL were sending the wrong regions to the wrong places!

    Also, now Sky Digital's on air in a big way, you'd need a few regional versions of RTE 1/2 for it to work on satellite.


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    #35
    Ulsterman 1690
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,242 ✭✭✭Ulsterman 1690


    the majority of the population doesn't watch RTE from an antenna

    ? :confused:

    Do you have a source for this


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    #36
    Sponge Bob
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 25,234 ✭✭✭✭Sponge Bob


    well if

    1. the average household is 2.8 persons
    2. you have 330k sky subs
    3. you have 571k cable/mmds subs
    4. you have 10k IPTV and FTTHsubs ( Magnet mainly )

    Then (2+3+4)*1 = 2.551m persons so Solair is quite right on that rough calculation.

    It may be fairer to say that half the population do not RELY on Broadcast alone and I admit my figures for any of 2 or 4 are not definitive although 3 is so don't bate me !


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    #37
    Solair
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,230 ✭✭✭Solair


    According to Liberty Global, UPC Ireland (Chorus and NTL Ireland) have 594,000 video (Cable/MMDS) subscribers of which 211,000 are digital.
    Source: http://www.lgi.com/ireland.html

    Sky Digital now claim to have 484,000 homes in Ireland on sky digital
    Source: BSkyB Results for the nine months ended 31 March 2007

    http://www.lgi.com/ireland.html

    So UPC : 594000
    Sky: 484000
    IPTV: 10000
    Gives you: 1,088,000 homes or, at 2.8 persons per home : 3,046,400 people.

    705,000 homes have digital tv supplied by UPC, Sky or IPTV = 73.88% of the population
    or : 1,974,000 viewers! or aprox. 47.87%

    So, 1 062 686 people are watching RTE direct from air primarily i.e don't have cable/MMDS/Sky or IPTV : 25.7% of the population.

    I bet that's mostly made up by people in border areas / served by deflectors.


    Total pop: Census 2006: 4,123,318


    If you assume that analogue cable in Ireland plays a role very much like FreeView in the UK
    aprox 80% of homes in the UK now have digital TV (largely freeview)
    and 73.8% (according to those stats, and it did not include the non UPC cable operators) in the Republic of Ireland have either cable or full digital tv.

    That would sound right to me, given that the two markets are very similar. Cable's simply the more dominant technology here. I wouldn't get too caught up in whether it's digital or analogue, the end result is still similar line up of multichannel tv to Freeview.

    You would need to include the smaller cable cos, e.g. casey cable vision has at least 2500 digital subs.
    Also, is that accurate for magnet + smartvision?
    and the SCTV digital..

    I'd say with accurate and uptodate figures you'd be looking at close to 80% not watching TV from analogue over the air sources.


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    #38
    Sponge Bob
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 25,234 ✭✭✭✭Sponge Bob


    Solair wrote:
    I'd say with accurate and uptodate figures you'd be looking at close to 80% not watching TV from analogue over the air sources.

    Hmm , quite a few also use freesat+analogue tv .

    20% of households is about 300000 households or so ( we have 1.5m ) .

    My understanding is that 33% of all sky boxes ever made are not in a sub today so if this ratio is accurate there are 484k sky subs meaning 240k sky boxes in 'other' uses either abroad or as second non subbed boxes or dead or as FTA systems .

    I should think that 100k households are FTA sat + analogue terrestrial and will be FTA sat + DTT in time.

    My own family ( parents and siblings) has something like 9 sky boxes in use and only one sub between the lot of us .......because his kids like Sponge Bob would you believe . My lot can watch him on TG4 if they must .


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    #39
    zilog_jones
    Registered Users Posts: 6,641 ✭✭✭zilog_jones


    Solair wrote:
    So, 1 062 686 people are watching RTE direct from air primarily i.e don't have cable/MMDS/Sky or IPTV : 25.7% of the population.

    I bet that's mostly made up by people in border areas / served by deflectors.
    You know there are people who just don't have much of an interest in any extra channels. I know of people in Limerick city who have no interest in cable/Sky/whatever, and I know some people who just have an aerial and FTA satellite. There's also a lot of foreign nationals who wouldn't have much interest in UK channels.

    And let's not forget students! When living in privately rented accomodation, a lot of students would be more interested in just getting broadband over cable TV. Many put up with a godawful reception (often co-ax that goes to an aerial that no longer exists, coat hanger, etc.). I know some who don't actually receive any broadcasts at all - they only use their TV for DVDs and games. And a lot of students who do receive RTÉ signals certainly aren't paying for them :)


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    #40
    watty
    Registered Users Posts: 32,417 ✭✭✭✭watty


    I don't think anyone knows how many non-Sky FTA sat and Non-Sky Satellite Pay TV there is


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    #41
    dulpit
    Registered Users Posts: 10,267 ✭✭✭✭dulpit


    I would think that there really isn't much of a demand for regional tv in Ireland, we're just too small... Where regional opt-outs would be good would be the National Radio Stations, but that's a different argument...


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    #42
    Solair
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,230 ✭✭✭Solair


    It's hard to rule out demand for something that has never been tried. Cork Multichannel ran a cable-only regional channel from the early 1980s onwards and it seemed to turn a profit for a long time. CityChannel in Dublin seems to be working quite well too.

    If RTE were prepared to actually do something new they might be able to roll out decent regional TV.

    RTE Cork in particular is well capable of churning out a good quality news programme for Munster.

    There's no reason why the Galway studios with the help of the Northwestern Studios couldn't do a West of Ireland + Donegal service.

    The Midlands and Southeast might be a little more marginal, but there is no reason why they couldn't be covered.

    RTE just lack the vision, the imagination and the ability to see beyond the gates of the RTE Campus in Donnybrook!


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    #43
    Elmo
    Registered Users Posts: 23,641 ✭✭✭✭Elmo


    It was reported last week that the new Breakfast service will be broadcast from cork.

    Lyric Broadcasts from Limerick
    RnaG broadcasts from around the country but it main base is in Galway.


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    #44
    1012594711
    Registered Users Posts: 52 ✭✭1012594711


    I remember six-one regional opt-outs on RTE1. They seemed to have been introduced with the 1992 rebranding of 'Six One' and lasted until 1994. The 'East' optout was introduced by a jingle also used by the BBC in a trailer for one of its comedy shows. The graphics featured the word 'East' 'growing' out of the 'Six One' logo and staying to the right of it, and the jingle lasted 5-10 seconds. Presumably the presenter was in a corner of the 'Six One' studio, a different presenter from 'Six One' main programme. Behind the presenter was a map of Ireland with a highlighter over the East of the country. The 'East' presenter introduced news items about various parts of the region including Portmarnock (North County Dublin). I made a sound recording of one such bulletin


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    #45
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,681 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    L1011 wrote: »
    I can't, offhand, name one programme from the US I've watched in the past year. Clearly I have, but they're all so similar, so ****, that they fade away almost instantly.

    This comment has dated rather badly. Partially because I watch a lot less TV :pac: But the quality from the US paid networks and VOD products has increased hugely.


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    #46
    Elmo
    Registered Users Posts: 23,641 ✭✭✭✭Elmo


    L1011 wrote: »
    This comment has dated rather badly. Partially because I watch a lot less TV :pac: But the quality from the US paid networks and VOD products has increased hugely.

    when you said that Network TV (NBC, CBS, FOX and ABC) were starting to produce some bad programming while Cable TV was on the up, and now with Netflix their are very few Network TV dramas/comedies worth watching.


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    #47
    1012594711
    Registered Users Posts: 52 ✭✭1012594711


    There does not seem to be any indication of plans to introduce regional TV in Ireland, apart from private cable stations around the country. They don't combine together to compile any national TV programmes. Regional radio seems more advanced. Some commercial radio stations run national radio news fed to a network of local radio stations. The local stations insert their local news after the national bulletin.
    The national RTE tea time news seems to be mainly about the cities. A 2 minute slot is allocated to short snippets of news around the country. 'Nationwide' seems to balance things out by concentrating on areas outside the cities, and perhaps 90 minutes weekly is considered by RTE to be more than enough time to cover the areas. If there were to be local regional that opted out from the network, it would most likely seem to be Cork, Limerick and Waterford. There would be enough population in these centres to justify a daily news bulletin, perhaps with some 'slot sharing' to start with and as the service developed and demand increased, sub regions could develop


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    #48
    1012594711
    Registered Users Posts: 52 ✭✭1012594711


    I remember RTE regional opt-outs in 1994. I believe they commenced in 1992 with the rebranding of 'six-one'. They were discontinued in 1994. They formed a daily 2-minute insert in 'Six One'. Dublin viewers got the news for the 'East'. There were some posts to Boards.ie saying that some of the cable systems setup meant that viewers in Galway received the signal direct from Dublin and would be confused if regional optouts were introduced, as they would get the news for the 'east'. Unlike in the UK, viewers in a region were not tied to particular local transmitter networks. In addition technology has made it easier for private local channels to set up. There are several around the country. It would seem that if if RTE invested in regional optouts they may not be noticed due to the private local news channels. A lot of viewers to RTE use digital devices rather than TV, or receive RTE via a satellite package. The opt-outs would only affect TV 'terrestrial' broadcasts which have a reducing audience. And RTE increased the frequency of 'Nationwide' about 2 years after scrapping the 2-minute regional opt-outs on 'six-one'. Perhaps all the resources for local news production were taken up by the increased output of 'Nationwide', which was focused on reporting news from areas outside Dublin and considered better value for money, with its unedited network broadcast


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    #49
    1012594711
    Registered Users Posts: 52 ✭✭1012594711


    I made a sound tape recording of the regional news for the 'East' that was part of 'Six One' in 1994, from Dublin. It was on for 2 minutes. I was planning to travel to other parts of the country with a tape recorder to record examples, as I had been travelling to the UK to record different regional news programmes there, but the regional news was discontinued.


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